Biel 07: Radjabov wins, Carlsen loses to Pelletier

7/31/2007 – Two days ago, we asked who could stop Magnus Carlsen. Step forward Yannick Pelletier! The Swiss GM gave the home fans something to cheer about, as he cashed in on a very strange error by the Norwegian prodigy. Radjabov won his second straight game, after a mind-boggling slugfest against the luckless Van Wely, and now shares the lead with Carlsen. Echos of Fischer.

Standings after seven rounds

The ghost of Bobby Fischer seems to be haunting Biel. Earlier in the tournament,
it was Judit Polgar, who first gave an interview about him, and then adopted
one of his old Najdorf lines. Today, it was the turn of tournament leader Magnus
Carlsen to produce an echo of one of Fischer's games. His snatch of the h7-pawn
was eerily reminiscent of Fischer's famously hubristic 29...Bxh2, in game one
of his 1972 match with Spassky. It is hard to imagine what motivated Carlsen's
choice, but his errant prelate paid the ultimate price, after which White's
only drawing chance was that a mutual massacre of pawns might result in a theoretically
drawn R v R+N ending. Alas for the Norwegian and his supporters, it was not
to be; the agility of Pelletier's knight enabled him to preserve his last pawn,
after which all that remained was to avoid the perpetual check/stalemate cheapos.

Until recently, Switzerland was not strong at chess. Although 1976 vice-world
champion Viktor Korchnoi settled down in the country, the game has not
become popular. Many talents did not break through or chose a mainstream
life.

Yannick Pelletier, born in Biel in 1976, was the first one to challenge
the pattern. After high school, he decided to become a professional chess
player. Pelletier's character is a perfect fit: he is not only talented
but also hard working and self-critical. He both calculates precisely
and has a good feeling for more quiet phases of the game. His technique
is very clean.

The likeable Pelletier speaks several languages fluently, amongst them
Russian. He was three-time Swiss individual champion, won four times the
Swiss team championship with his team SG Biel, and has played regularly
with the Swiss national team in many international events.

His home games will not be easy as his rating is the lowest at this level.
However, the fighter Pelletier will not be beaten easily. A good performance
would bring tremendous pride to his hometown Biel!

The slugfest of the day, if not the whole tournament, was the game van Wely-Radjabov.
The players renewed a theoretical discussion in the Bayonet King's Indian Defence,
in which two previous encounters between them have ended 1-1. Having lost last
time, at Corus this year, it was Van Wely's turn to improve, which he attempted
to do with 15.c5. A razor-sharp position was soon reached, from which it was
eventually Radjabov who emerged on top, after both players had shown great tactical
ingenuity and imagination.

Polgar's anti-Marshall line brought nothing at all against Onischuk, and White
was gradually outplayed in the middlegame. Fortunately, Black's extra pawn was
partially balanced by White's excellent blockading knight on d3, and after some
manoeuvering, Black mislaid his extra pawn and the draw followed.

Avrukh-Motylev was another stirring battle. White made the early running, but
his queenside breakthrough stalled and he was reduced to repeating moves. Motylev
avoided the draw with 35...Re8, but this proved optimistic, and White should
probably have made more of his assortment of pieces against the queen.

This exact position has occurred in Ftacnik-Khenkin 2003, Olafsson-Aronian
2004, Pelletier-Sargissian
2004, Cramling-Mkrtchian 2004, Novikov-Shulman2006, Vallejo-Topalov 2006, Rustemov-Jakovenko
2006, and doubtless in another few games in recent years. All were drawn.

Video from the Biel Chess Festival

Interview with Alexander Grischuk on FIDE and poker

What do you think about the FIDE cycle? "Okay, it is just terrible, so
many terrible things. Everybody knows it, why should I repeat it?" Are
you a chess or a poker player? "Now that I qualified [for the world championship]
I am back in chess. I study a lot, train a lot. So now I am in chess."
[Grischuk is a semi-professional poker player].

See also

9/26/2017 – The final classical game. The finals has been relatively sedate with three draws until now. But it could all end today with one decisive game. Ding Liren has the black pieces today. It's going to be an exciting game. Games kick off at 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EST) with live commentary from Tbilisi by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and live updates by our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

See also

7/5/2017 – This is neither prank nor clever wording: Garry Kasparov will be playing in the official St. Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour from August 14-19, 2017. Please note that this is the Rapid and Blitz competition, just as the ones held in Paris and Levuen these last weeks, and not the classical events. However, this is not an exhibition event, and will determine the official Grand Chess Tour rankings as well as FIDE ratings of the players. Here is the press release.

Video

Tired of spending hours and hours on the boring theory of your favourite opening? Then here is your solution, play an Anti-Sicilian with 3.Bb5 against 2...d6 or 2...Nc6, and 3.d3 against 2...e6. In 60 minutes you will get a crash course in how to avoid mainstream theory and in understanding the ideas of this Anti-Sicilian setup. After these 60 minutes you should be able to survive the Sicilian for a long time, without being bothered by new developments found by engine x supported by an x-core machine. Now that it finally comes down to understanding, let's play chess!